


Stay Till Forever Ends

by KaelsMiscellany



Series: Amárantos [2]
Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Love is also considering your wife's suggestion to get help, Love is telling your husband mortals are temporary, Minor canon divergence, No Spoilers, post-epilogue, so you can hotfoot it over when she texts you she's home alone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:40:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27120554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaelsMiscellany/pseuds/KaelsMiscellany
Summary: Local parchmentwork obsessed god desperately loves his wife. More after eleven Zagreus escape attempts.
Relationships: Hades/Persephone (Hades Video Game)
Series: Amárantos [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1976068
Comments: 21
Kudos: 239





	Stay Till Forever Ends

**Author's Note:**

> and I'm back, with Hades/Persephone fluff, bc it makes me happy.
> 
> Story title comes from "Under the Gravel Skies" by Charlotte Martin, the series title is the Greek word for 'Unfading'

“I think we should get bees.” After a second, Persephone continued. “For the garden.”

Hades made the mistake of glancing up from his parchmentwork to look at her. He’d known she was nearby for a while, the scent of her, narcissus, pomegranate, and fig—which was unexpected—filling his nose with every unnecessary breath he had taken since she arrived. But until now she had been silent, content to be next to him while he worked.

She, it turned out, was sitting on his desk. The pile of scrolls she’d displaced balanced on her lap, and a bowl of figs carefully placed atop the scrolls—which explained the change in her scent—which she ate from with her usual precise care. That she ate at all when neither of them had any true need to, fascinated him to no end, even still.

“Bees?” He forced himself to speak, so she did not think he was _staring_ at her.

She gave a nod and bit into another fig, chasing the juice that slipped down her finger with her tongue. “Bees would be good for the garden. I could pollinate everything, true, but it’s always nice to have the help. They make honey, too. Which would be good to go with the oxygala the chef’s started to make since you picked up the ewes the mortals left for us the last time you were up to fight Zagreus. They make a pleasant sound, that low calming drone. Far better than Hypnos’ snores.” She gave a flash of a smile and tossed a fig at the sleeping god in question.

And it was, hrmm, _amusing_ to watch Hypnos wake and attempt to juggle his papyrus, sylus, _and_ the fig. “Thank you, Your Majesty!” Hypnos beamed at Persephone before consuming the fig with more speed than was typical from him.

Persephone’s smile turned softer, she picked up three more figs, and tossed them over her shoulder at Cerberus, each head snapping one up in kind, yipping their appreciation. “You’re spoiling him,” Hades grumbed without heat.

“I think after my absence everyone here deserves some spoiling,” Persephone replied. “So, shall I pick some bees up from Aristaeus when I return to the surface?”

Hades should return to his parchmentwork, not continue to stare at his queen. “Do as you please.” 

“Bees, bey armut and poppies for Zagreus...” she mused to herself between bites of another fig. “I’ll be bringing Hecate and the Lampades back with me too, when I return in a few months. So I’ll clearly have quite the retinue. Perhaps it’s a good thing she went to be a companion to my mother while I was gone. Now that Zagreus has settled down, him and the Lampades won’t be _too_ much of a problem, I think.”

A grunt left Hades. Zagreus and ‘settled down’ the most polar opposite ideas in all of existence.

Persephone tossed a fig at _him_ , he caught it easily. “Now. I might not have known our son as long as you have,” there was only the barest note of chastisement in her voice. “But even I can tell he’s become better since he’s been with Thanatos and Megaera. Do not belittle that.” Her voice turned firm. “That he is doing something he thoroughly enjoys helps too, I’m sure.” 

This time Hades’ grunt was conceding. Things _had_ been far easier, almost enjoyable, since Zagreus began his security testing—if nothing else Dadaelus, Brontes, Steropes, and Arges appreciated the challenge to their work.

“Do you wish me to bring you anything, Hades?” Persephone asked softly.

Finally he looked away, turning his attention to the parchmentwork. “I...do not wish for you to go,” he finally admitted, gruffly.

A soft, fond, sigh from her. He only blinked and she had moved from the side of his desk into his lap, her hands firmly moving his head so that he looked down at her. “Oh, Hades. I will return, you must always believe that. I will not let anything stop me.”

“I do.” It was perhaps one of the few things he _did_ believe. “But that does not stop me from…” He forced himself to stop, recalling they were in no way alone.

“Hades…” She buried her face in his neck, her voice becoming a murmured caress against his skin. “It is not forever, my love. One day, there will no longer be any mortals above to care for. Then I will return here and never look back, and be only your queen and wife.”

It was perhaps an unkindness to the mortals above, and to his family, but Hades wished that day would come sooner, rather than later. He wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her hair and the narcissus blossoms woven amongst the strands—the blossoms they’d created still fresh and fragrant, even after nearly thirty escape attempts by Zagreus since that garden rendezvous. “I love you.”

“And I love you too, forever and always,” she replied, quietly. Then continued, a little louder. “But just because I am going, doesn’t mean you can’t come and visit me.” She pulled away and arched her eyebrow pointedly.

“I cannot leave my work,” he responded tersely. It was never ending after all, people always died, that was their lot. Even fighting Zagreus was work in it’s own way.

She pursed her lips, and snapped her fingers. There was a distant rattling sound from the administrative chamber, then the sound of that same door opening. A few seconds later she was pushing a scroll into his hands. “What is this?” He frowned at it.

“A list of kings currently residing in Elysium, who were known in life for their sound judgement and sage counsel. Zagreus, Nyx, and I spoke with them, and the ones all on that list implied they would be more than willing to do something other than fight. You could create a panel of them, perhaps, to deal with the majority of the cases here, especially considering most everyone goes to Asphodel anyways. You yourself could then only deal with the special cases and petitions, which would give you a good amount of free time. More than enough to come visit me on the surface, yes?”

Part of him wanted to turn the idea out of hand immediately, because the way things were done were the way things had _always_ been done, and it worked perfectly fine. Yet he would not lie to himself that the freedom to see Persephone when he pleased was...tempting. “And your mother?” Not that Hades has ever quite cared to be on Demeter’s good side, at least not since he took on his role here, but he knew Persephone wished to be on good terms with her again.

Persephone gave him a flat look. “I am a married woman, what I do, or do not, get up to with my husband is none of her blasted business. No matter where, or when, it might happen. And that is not an answer to the question.”

“I will think about it,” he finally answered. Having others to speak for him _would_ help with the backlog that Demeter’s almost fifty year winter had caused. It wasn’t as bad as when the Olympians had eliminated the Gigantes after the Titanomachy, but the influx of shades had been greater than usual. 

“Good.” She began to pull away, and he reluctantly let her go. “As much as I would like to remain, I need to prepare to go, Hermes said he would arrive within ten of Zagreus’ attempts, and it’s been six.” She rose up and kissed the corner of his mouth. “I will be back before you know it, Hades.” She slipped away, and he watched her go. It was only half as painful as the first time.

**Author's Note:**

> I cannot be the only one who's had the idea that Zag's 'escape' attempts become a sort of ad-hoc time keeping system in the Underworld. 'Let's meet in the longue in two escape attempts', 'it's gonna take me, like, sixteen escapes to get this back to you, maybe more.'


End file.
